Grounding 2

I am happy to report that the aforementioned challenges of last week have led to many graceful reprieves and a solid moving forward, moving on.

I don’t know about you (and would like to), but I often go through phases of losing things, then finding them. The finding part is pretty fun and it makes me feel giddy–like last night when I found my purple datebook. I could feel that moment coming. I just knew, and could almost smell the moment of uniting with this simple important life tool and companion–my datebook.

I admit that I did allow myself to feel a little ungrounded by not having a datebook for a week (among other things) which caused me some avoidable stress. At my husband’s behest, I almost resorted to an electronic system such as Google Calendar, but that reminds me too much of the days of old as a fully employed non-profit executive–a life and work style that I chose to leave behind more than four years ago now.

In my present lifestyle, I’ve come to master the art of conscious simplification. What, you may wonder, have I simplified and how? Here is a partial list I follow that I hope will help you feel inspired to simplify your life:

Remember and practice the three R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

Reduce your overhead costs. One way we do this is by no longer owning a home. “Renting IS the new owning”

Live in community! This uses less resources, reduces social isolation and increases health. We live in a co-housing community and rent a “casita”.

For every new item of clothing you bring into your, home give away two!

Make room for new energies in to flow into your life! Clear your space of everything that is not useful and everything that contributes to clutter. You can do this!

Get outside more often! Make “artist dates” with yourself. See how being out in the community and in nature move you.

When you feel isolated, connect! Follow the old adage, “If you want a friend, be a friend”.

Be giving and thoughtful! What kindness can you extend to someone in the next few days? Go do that!

What dreams are on the shelf that you can dust off and bring to life? Embrace them and take some grounded steps toward making them happen.

Having already radically altered my life to support many of my dreams, it is easy to say that I love my life! I suppose I can also say that I am semi-retired and I love that aspect of my life. I get to be of service while working for myself at long last. And now is my time to embrace other dreams that I’ve had on the back burner. Stay tuned for dream sharing to learn what creative endeavors I am in hot pursuit of!

Meanwhile, I could not resist closing this post with Mary Oliver’s related poem, The Summer Day (on this autumn day). Thanks for bearing with this tangential, stream of consciousness blog post that led us to this moment!

The Summer Day

by Mary Oliver
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean--
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?